Spinning Bottles
by Ivy Leaves
Summary: You all knew it was coming: Val and Tyler go to a party where juvenile games lead to more... The little part at the beginning admittedly has no point. Deal with it...


Glass Bottles

Spinning Bottles

The bright yellow flyer dropped out of Valerie Lanier's locker as she opened it. Picking it up, she read the black block lettering:

**Party Time. 8:00 Friday night, the 27th of March, Hugh Anders's house. Be there!**

"Are you going?" Tyler Connell's voice interrupted. Val looked up.

"Sure, why not? I think we have that night off, and I don't want to get stuck babysitting the terrible Miller twins." Val grimaced at the thought.

"Are they the ones who put peanut butter in your hair and spray-painted your black shoes light blue?" Tyler inquired with a smile. Val grimaced again.

"Yes. They were new sandals, too. Thank God Mrs. Miller reimbursed me." Val looked down at her feet and wiggled her lavender-coated toes in the light blue sandals—the same ones the Millers had spray-painted. "And that they didn't take the mustard spray paint."

Tyler grinned and looked at her feet as well. "Well, maybe if you go back they can use the lavender paint and your shoes will match your nails."

Val elbowed him as she got out her Spanish book. "Be quiet."

"Oh, Valerie, my heart is breaking." He clutched his chest.

"Are you trying out for the school play or something?" she asked.

"Hey, I think I can probably get the role of Tommy or something—if you help me practice." Tyler smiled.

"Aw, how sweet," Val sobbed, overly fake in her acting. "I think I'm just going to die…" She closed her locker.

"You're not helping," complained Tyler, tagging along as she started walking to Spanish class.

"Are there any sideburns involved?" Val questioned with a teasing smile.

"I've learned my lesson," he said. "No more sideburn glue."

"Good. Look, I'll help you practice later, at the station, all right?" Val stopped and turned to him. "But you have to help me with math."

Tyler was about to answer when the warning bell rang. "Uh oh. Bye." He dashed off. Val shrugged and turned left into her Spanish class.

*

"I'm getting a drink," Val said to Tyler, edging off through the crowd in her short, white linen tank dress. Tyler nodded to nobody and looked around, listening to the music blaring from the speakers (which was currently Macy Gray, but he assumed they were listening to the radio).

"Hey, Val, wait up, I think I'm thirsty, too." She hadn't heard him, but he followed her to the refreshments table anyway. However before he reached the drinks a hand latched onto his arm.

"Are you two going to play the game with us?" asked Jessica Robinson, a junior with long, light brown hair bleached blond at the ends and brown eyes.

"What game?" Val inquired, coming up behind Tyler with a glass of punch.

"Spin the bottle. Come on." Jessica pulled the two of them over to a circle of about thirty people sitting on a rug. Val handed her glass off to another girl as she was dragged.

"No, come on, this is way too juvenile," Val argued. "This is like, ninth grade."

"Don't chicken out, Val," Jessica laughed. Val raised her eyebrows meaningfully to Tyler, who returned the look.

"Fine," Val grumbled, sitting down in the circle, Tyler next to her.

"Okay, Val, you can go first," Jessica said cheerfully. "Whoever the bottle points to you have to go into that closet for seven minutes." She pointed at a wooden door.

"I thought we were playing Spin the Bottle, not Seven Minutes in Heaven," said Val. Jessica shrugged.

"Different people call it different things. Spin."

Val groaned and reached out, spinning the bottle. One time around… two… three… four… five… six… the bottle slowed and made a seventh rotation, pointing at her.

Well, not quite her. More like Tyler.

"The closet, you two," directed a gleeful Jessica. Val and Tyler exchanged looks.

"No way."

"Not possible."

"In your dreams."

"Nope."

"Uh-uh."

"Excuse me?"

"As if."

"Dream on."

Finally the two were pushed into the closet and a key turned in the lock.

"This is just great," huffed Val, crossing her arms. "You know they're not going to let us out of here until we've kissed."

"Or seven minutes are up," pointed out Tyler.

"I have a feeling that Jessica isn't going to care if we're in here until the party is over, so long as we kiss." Val started pounding on the door.

"You have a bobby pin?" Tyler inquired, looking at the lock.

"Nope."

"They're intelligent, you know?"

"Yeah." Val leaned against the wall.

One minute ticked by, slowly, with both of them trying very hard to avoid the other's eyes. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes.

"Two minutes," sighed Tyler.

"I never thought four hundred and twenty seconds could seem so long," Val confessed. "Hey, Jess, we've kissed!"

"Yeah, right!" yelled Jessica in response. Val sighed.

"You know, there's only one way to get out of here," she told Tyler, stepping forward. He stared at her, looking into her blue eyes. "And we might as well make the best of it."

She slowly reached her arms around his neck.

"Val—I don't think—"

"Tyler. Please." Her eyes were begging him now, and as the eyes watched his compliance, they closed. "I'm sorry, though…"

Her voice faded as their lips connected, sending shots of burning fire through her veins.

"Okay…okay, Val…Val…" He was trying to return the kiss and speak to her at the same time, which was difficult. "Val!" He drew his lips away. "Listen to me!"

Her eyes opened, confused. "What?"

"I don't think—I don't really think—I don't think we should be doing this," he finished, pressing his finger to her lips. "I think we need to stop it right now."

"Oh," said Val in a very small voice, turning away from him. "Okay then."

With strange timing, the door swung open forty-seven seconds before the time was up.

Val took advantage of the interruption to stalk out of the closet, out of the party.

"Bug off," Tyler said bitterly to the curious eyes looking at him as he ran after Val. "Wait up, Val! Come back here!"

The night air was cold as he burst out of the house in pursuit of her. The blond figure clad in white was running down the sidewalk, black platform sandals clacking against the pavement.

"Val!" he yelled, chasing her, cutting across the lawn to catch the dove before it flew.

"Tyler, I really don't want to deal with you right now," she informed him.

"But Val—"

"I know it was wrong, okay, Tyler," she began loudly so that he could hear her as she speeded up and the wind blew against her, "but you know, I couldn't really help it."

"Val—" But he was once again cut off.

"This is totally going to destroy our entire friendship, sure. And I may never be able to look you in the eyes again, sure. But I'm going to have this little thing inside of me that wants to do it again, and again, and again, and that little thing is going to be glad I did it because I might never have gotten the chance otherwise." She was speeding up.

"Val, I never—"

"That was my first kiss," she admitted, stopping and turning to him. "It's my senior year, I'm graduating in two months, other kids in our class have already gone way beyond kisses, but I have never been kissed in my entire life because I had stupid dreams that if I waited long enough it would make the first one more special. Well, now I get stuck kissing someone who doesn't even want to kiss me." Her body was racking with sobs and shivers.

"Val, I never said I didn't want to kiss you," Tyler said slowly, glad to be finally able to get his sentence out. Val's blue eyes stared at him with disbelief as he raked his fingers through his hair with a long sigh. "I just—Val, I don't want to have to kiss you when it's forced."

The air against her body made her cheeks ruddy and her eyes large as random strands of golden hair whipped against her face. "What?"

"I don't want to kiss you when it's—I don't know, forced. Necessary."

"It wasn't forced back there," Val said abruptly. "We could have just pretended we kissed."

"True." Tyler looked down at Val, and then slid his hand around her neck. "Is it forced now?" he inquired. Val blinked.

"No."

"Then am I allowed to kiss you now?"

"You have very strange ideals," Val told him. "You keep changing your mind."

"Was that a yes?" Tyler looked into her eyes questioningly.

"Yes," responded Val. Tyler slowly leaned down and searched her lips with his own gently, pulling away eventually.

"Let me walk you home," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Val smiled and the two of them set off down the street together, disappearing into the darkness of the night.

Mwa he ha. Aricraze, for once you didn't know about a fic…Well, THANKIES VERY MUCH TO ARICRAZE, who is writing out Cinderella Story for me very kindly…and she betas most of my stories. This was just written quickly on a whim in like half an hour, so she was clueless. Anyways, thankies to her. REVIEW PLEASE PEOPLES!!!

---Ivy


End file.
